Ladies! Please, leave me a comment if you’ve ever had a laser facial. 

I’m so curious if this is a common thing because IT SHOULD BE.

Let me take you back to the Autumn of 2017 (not even a year ago!). My skin was fairly good, a few blemishes here and there but nothing crazy. However on my forehead I started to see that I had some darker pigmentation coming through and it was becoming more and more noticeable.

The most likely reason for these darker spots showing up was from lack of sunscreen used as a kid when playing soccer for hours on end outside in direct sunlight. And when I say ‘kid’ that’s from about the time I was three years old to seventeen so a good fourteen years. I loved having tan skin so I waived off the warnings from my Mom and Grams about using sunscreen. Wish I would have listened to those wise words!

Up until a few months ago I was never that interested in having a beauty routine besides a face wash and moisturizer. But let me tell you, there is SO much that can be done for discoloration in your skin tone.

My skincare journey began as I started thinking about my wedding day (and honeymoon). A secret dream of mine is to wake up and roll out of bed with an even skin tone. Can you imagine not having to put on a full face of make up to achieve that? Yea, sounds glorious to me too. So that was the goal.

Since I needed to speed up my skin recovery, I took a trip to Dr. Dino Elyassnia’s office for a consultation to see what treatment would be the best to quickly eliminate the majority of my dark spots. We concluded that the Phototherapy BBL (BroadBand Light) laser facial would be a great fit.

Beautiful view of San Francisco at Dr. Dino’s office

The BroadBand Light penetrates layers beneath your skin surface and pulls out the darker pigmentation. It basically gets to the root of the darker layers and brings them out and once they come out they exfoliate off and they are gone forever (as long as you always wear sunscreen and actively protect your face from sun exposure thereafter).

Since I didn’t have a lot of time before my wedding (five months to be exact) I decided to do three treatments spaced out with one month in between each treatment. I will most likely continue with one treatment every year for maintenance. Dr. Dino oversaw the treatments and Nurse Laura administered them (she’s amazing!).

Here’s the inside scoop on how my treatments went:

First, you have to make sure you take off all your make up. No spray tanning on any areas that you’re going to get the laser treatment on. The BroadBand Light will mistakenly try to target the darker areas of skin that have make up or spray tan and not your actual dark pigmentation.

Second, put on the topical anesthetic. This was a life saver for me. The procedure isn’t painful but I’m more sensitive than most people so I used the numbing gel every time because it made it more comfortable.

Third, start up that light! The treatment felt like a rubber band was being snapped on my face. It was always more intense around my nose and more so uncomfortable than painful.

Right after my first treatment I was rather rosy in color. Dr. Dino and Nurse Laura did warn me that my dark spots could appear up to 10x darker and that is exactly what happened. I couldn’t believe it. The treatment was pulling out the darker pigmentation immediately. I was also fairly rosy after my first treatment. This is probably because I’m pretty sensitive on my face. This can be different for everyone. After about 7 days the dark areas exfoliated off. Not going to lie, it was magical. They didn’t vanish completely just from one treatment but I saw a huge improvement.

PRO TIP: do not plan a photoshoot or social gathering within the following 3-5 days of your first treatment. It was challenging for me to cover up the dark spots even with make up.

My second and third treatments were more mild than the first time and it was much more comfortable to endure. Also, the amount of redness afterwards was very minimal and my darker spots didn’t get as dark. Dr. Dino and Nurse Laura said the reason behind this is mainly because my first treatment removed a lot of the dark pigmentation from the darker areas on my skin. By the third treatment I could walk out of the office with some sunscreen and no make up on. It was awesome!  FYI It’s different for every patient so you may need more treatments to achieve your goal.

Get 10% off your first IPL treatment

with Dr. Dino when you tell them I referred you!

Below are un-retouched photos from each one of my treatments. The difference is CRAZY.

While doing my treatments I also started to use an array of products.

1. Vitamin C serum
   • using a vitamin c serum or cream was recommended by so many people. It’s amazing for evening out skin tone and softening wrinkles.
2. Lytera
   • Lytera: a pigment correcting serum
   • addresses stubborn discoloration
3. Environ Youth EssentiA
   • nourishes and hydrates the skin + anti aging
4. 1% Retinol Cream
   • exfoliates and moisturizes skin + diminishes fine lines + infused with lots of vitamins
5. Pink Cloud Rosewater Moisture Creme
   • my FAVORITE face moisturizer ever – smells amazing and soaks in very nice leaving my face feeling fresh and soft

That about wraps it up ladies!

I hope this helped you and answered some skin questions for you!

If there is anything else you’d like to know about the BBL Treatment with Dr. Dino or anything at all, leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to answer.

Have a beautiful day and remember to wear sunscreen!

xoxo, Katie